First customers begin using W.CHEF as Woolworths moves its AI food assistant into live beta

Woolworths customers can now ask the Woolies app, “what’s for dinner?”, having opened W.CHEF, its AI-powered food assistant to its first group of customers, marking the first time the tool is being used outside the business. The live beta follows the announcement of W.CHEF earlier this year and moves the implementation from development into real-world customer use.

Drawing on more than 20 years of Woolworths TASTE recipes, W.CHEF responds to everyday prompts with personalised meal ideas for different dietary needs, preferences and occasions. It also suggests wine pairings and lets customers add multiple ingredients to their basket with a single prompt, linking meal inspiration directly to shopping on Woolies DASH.

The beta phase will allow Woolworths to learn directly from customers, gather feedback and refine the experience ahead of a broader rollout in the coming months.

Sam Ngumeni, Group CEO of Woolworths, said, “Food is at the heart of Woolworths and remains our greatest competitive advantage. As we sharpen our focus on this part of the business, we also have an opportunity to use our digital capabilities more deliberately to make the experience easier, more relevant and more valuable for our customers, and W.CHEF is a good example of what that looks like in practice.”

The tool was developed with support from Microsoft. Vukani Mngxati, CEO of Microsoft South Africa, said, “For most people, AI is still something they read about rather than something they use, but W.CHEF changes that. Built on Microsoft Azure, it understands each customer’s tastes and dietary needs. This is what AI with real-world impact looks like, and we are proud to partner with Woolworths in making it readily available to South African consumers”.

This is just the start. Woolworths’ longer-term vision is for W.CHEF to become a personal food companion that helps customers plan meals for the week, balance nutrition and budget, and shop with even greater ease.